Homeschooling at the Gettysburg KOA

Everyone’s first question for us when it comes to us doing this trip during the school year is “Are you homeschooling?”

I explained before we left on the trip that this is the one area that caused me a bit of anxiety about taking off around the US for 7 months and pulling the kids from 6th and 7th grade. I wanted to do a relaxed curriculum focusing on obviously geography and history through our travels. Here is how we are learning at our Gettysburg, PA KOA.

Starting off our day with a home-cooked breakfast outdoors while watching our History Channel DVD on Gettysburg. I purchased many History Channel movies for the trip so we could brief the kids on areas and events that we would be experiencing.

After breakfast and the movie, it’s time to drive to the Battlefields of Gettysburg to experience them firsthand. The kids had a wonderful 5th-grade teacher who interactively taught them a lot of Civil War history so it was fun for them to see in person many of the things they had studied.

Here at Round Top, General Porter tells a story of his daughter and a famous pencil, before giving our daughter a replica herself. The kids all did the Junior Ranger books here and earned another badge as well.

One of the kids had made this box up awhile ago and I brought it with us in the RV so that we could use it for something fun along the road. The kids had enough change to rent banana bikes, play mini-golf, and do some mining at the KOA when we returned from the battlefields.

Hands down this is the best part of staying at the KOA… the time to decompress after a long day of touring historical sites!

The kids can run around while Keith and I take a walk and just breathe in the fresh air or sit with a glass of wine. You can’t compare staying at a hotel at times like this. At most hotels, there are very limited activities for kids to do, possibly an indoor pool. At the campground, there is an abundance of outdoor fun. This is also when we can grab our moments of solitude! Back to the curriculum…

Physical Education- Never worry about the kids getting in their physical education! You know it’s most kids’ favorite class all throughout school anyway. And pictures of kids having fun outdoors are priceless anyway!

Science- This is the first KOA that the kids have done any gem mining. They had a lot of fun just messing in the sand and water and seeing what gems they could find. Then they were able to read on the poster what elements they had acquired.

Math- We are doing daily math on Khan Academy right now. It is easy to do from the iPads and the kids enjoy the challenges. Most KOA’s have good wifi which enables the kids to do some work from the campsite. Otherwise, we do most of it while we are on the road driving. Not a bad environment to learn a little math before dinner!

Homework-  The kids had to read the directions to this new game and work together to figure out how to play Carpetball while we were making dinner. They loved it and it was the first one we’ve seen at a KOA.

I think we’re all going to miss this relaxed way of learning! Any questions on how we are road schooling throw them my way!